I count it an extreme honor to have served alongside Steve for the past decade. It was in 1996 that my life was forever changed as a result of the Brownsville Revival.

I didn't know then just how much of a role the evangelist at the revival would play in my life. Since that time, he's been a mentor, a friend and a fellow warrior. He will be greatly missed.

Steve once said that "a soldier is not tested in the barracks; they are tested on the battlefield." That's exactly where he lived his life-on the battlefield, fighting hell for the lost souls of men.

These last five years, the battle certainly intensified. Steve said we were watching him fight through the greatest trial of his life.

"I'm going through this," Steve would say. "I'm coming out the other side."

That was Steve, always the optimist in every situation. He processed everything through the lens of eternity. There were times the pain of the cancer would be so intense that he couldn't hold it in anymore. He would cry out in agony. You felt helpless; there was nothing you could do except be at his side. He would then compose himself and ask that we not be concerned about his pain. "This is nothing compared the
suffering our Savior endured on the cross," he would say. "Oh, the pain. No one could imagine that sort of pain."

Yes, Steve was an extraordinary man, the likes of which one often reads about in the journals of the great saints that preceded him. No doubt that is how history will remember him as well.

I'm going to miss the times we spent together sitting in his office as he spoke of the things he learned in the past and then we would dream of the future. He shared much wisdom during those times, and I'm eternally grateful for those moments. read more